A little more than a week after the firebomb attack on Jewish marchers in Boulder, Colo., the city’s mayor, Aaron Brockett, in partnership with the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), convened an emergency regional summit responding to the alarming rise in antisemitic violence.
“This is a time when we come together to support each other, support our Jewish community, and to call out the antisemitism at the root of this attack,” said Brockett in opening remarks at the forum held Monday on the campus of the University of Colorado Boulder. “I’m proud to say we’ve seen a huge amount of that here in Boulder over the past week.”
“We have a very long road ahead for recovery and healing in our community, certainly for the victims,” he added. “But I’m very much looking forward to learning the lessons about how we can do better moving forward, how we can support our Jewish community, combat antisemitism, and make sure that these kinds of things never happen again. Because to be clear, hate and antisemitism have absolutely no place in the city of Boulder, in the state of Colorado or anywhere in the United States.”
The Boulder attack and the murder the previous week of a young couple outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., are part of a disturbing national and worldwide pattern fueled by growing radicalization, misinformation, and hostility.
“Antisemitism is not just a Jewish problem; it’s a global emergency,” said Lisa Katz, chief government affairs officer at CAM. “And if we wait for someone else to act or for the next tragedy to strike, it will be too late.”
The summit, she noted, is “about tools. It’s about strategies. It’s about shared learning and joint action. But it’s also about something deeper—moral clarity. The courage to say what needs to be said and to do what needs to be done, even when it’s uncomfortable, unpopular or inconvenient.”
The gathering brought together top municipal and state decision-makers, as well as law-enforcement personnel, educators, faith leaders and community stakeholders from across the Mountain West and Great Plains to share best practices, devise plans, and coordinate decisive action to confront extremism and secure and nurture Jewish life.
Omer Shachar, an organizer of the “Run for Their Lives” walk at the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder that was attacked on June 1, shared his traumatic experience from that day.
“I was surprised by the sudden sound of glass shattering, and I was terrified to see that members of our group were on fire,” he said. “I realized immediately that we were under attack. I screamed ‘Run’ when I noticed that one of the participants, an 82-year-old woman, had fallen and was in flames. I tried to remove her from the blaze, but the heat had melted her skin, and she was slippery to the touch.”
He said “over the past week, it’s been difficult for me to walk in public without fear of being attacked. The terrorist attack in Boulder is a stark reminder that when hate speech is tolerated, violence follows. Phrases like ‘Globalize the intifada’ are not abstract. They are calls to action that incite violence. We must recognize and confront antisemitism in all its forms, ensuring that our communities remain safe for all residents.”
The summit was also addressed by Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, U.S. President Donald Trump’s designee to serve as the next U.S. State Department special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.
“I think it’s important that we all stand together and our voices are heard,” he said. “What steps can we take to work to prevent the next round of ‘How do we fight antisemitism?’ Because what we’re doing now isn’t achieving the goals that we need to have happen.”
He continued, saying that “the misinformation, the lies, the ‘genocide’ rumors, these have to be stopped. It stops through education. It stops through calling out individuals immediately. When you hear something antisemitic, I urge, I plead with you, I beseech you: Condemn it immediately. Hold people accountable.”
Kaploun said that “this is not a time to hope and pray antisemitism goes away. The only way this goes away is by all of us being vigilant, calling it out and educating people that hate is not tolerated in this country, or for that matter, anywhere in the world. Antisemitism must be eradicated.”
State-level legislators who attended the summit included Kansas state senate president Ty Masterson, Kansas House of Representatives Majority Leader Chris Croft, Nebraska state senator Brian Hardin and Oklahoma state representative Emily Gise. The lawmakers participated in a panel discussion on state-oriented strategies and initiatives to counter antisemitism.
Cities represented by their mayors at the summit, all located in Colorado, included Bennett, Boulder, Brighton, Castle Rock, Centennial, Commerce City, Edgewater, Golden, Lafayette, Louisville, Lyons, Morrison, Northglenn, Superior, Thornton and Westminister.
Colorado Springs and Erie were also represented by municipal officials.
The event also featured a series of presentations by security and law-enforcement experts, interfaith activists, local Jewish organizational officials and a Jewish student at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Sacha Roytman Dratwa, CEO of CAM, stated: “In Boulder, as in D.C., Jews were hunted, and the world looked away. When Jews are attacked in America, too many in the media, social-justice groups and institutions respond not with outrage, but indifference. No other community is targeted for their ethnic or religious ties to another nation—only Jews—and when it happens, the loudest voices for justice fall silent. That’s not subtle, it’s explicit antisemitism.”
“Jewish blood should not be politicized,” he said. “We demand the same outrage and action every other community receives. When Jews are stabbed, shot or burned, we will not tolerate silence. Silence can be deadly, and the next attacker can only be stopped with real action.”